Aloyzo's Arsenal Official SUBMISSION Discussion Thread

I honestly just tried to follow the Magus-staff pattern of cards (three magic attacks, usually one or two being arcane), a movement attack (either you step moving or a bash away), a parry, and a block....and using a type of wood; in this case, the Larch, which is a tree native to tundra. I suppose it could have been something pine-related for a Christmas-theme, but I wanted something a little more feral, I suppose.

The hard part was keeping it at double minor with the Freeze and the Icy Block, but my best friend, the Big Zap, came to the rescue here. It's got pretty good value for the damage output. I thought it would be viable because it allows you to have some capable cold attacks, while still having some major tokens left over for a Chunk of Ice, Waenog's, or even Pergop's to maximize your encumber potential, while still packing a Supercooled Laser to boot. However, I don't think it's super-powerful, as it doesn't have a melee attack I'd really want a wizard to have, and Big Zap (which apparently only is enjoyed by Flaxative and myself). The block hits the theme, and another Pushback Parry option for wizards is nice against step attacks, especially when you don't want to be resigned to Chask and its Slowed.

Thanks for the review, Deepweed. I think it's the best submission I've had so far, so I'm hoping for good things.

(In other news, Defensiveness fits on the Dice's staff not only for use, but for the theme. Defensiveness is often the thing I think of when it comes to a cold relationship, ha.)

 

Thanks for the review deepweed! I do have a problem of maximizing efficiency, so I will definitely think about not making my submissions too powerful next time xD

 

So I forgot to change my submission, which means no one else has a snowball's chance of winning the contest. Sorry guys!

 

It isn't bad, it just feels weird with Lunging Thrust. No staff currently has Lunging Thrust or Icy Block. I would have gone for one of the other, not both.

 

But staves do have nimble strikes, dancing cuts, and lunging strike.

 

Yes, I know. Which is why I think having Lunging Thrust would have been fine on its own, but combining it with ANOTHER card not found on staves pushes it into risky territory in my eyes.

 

The larch is in the pine family (Pinaceae), although it's deciduous and isn't shaped like a traditional Christmas tree. IMO tundra is anything north of Nashville, so the larch is of the deep tundra. I suppose there are others who may hold with a more strict, if niggling, definition of tundra. Regardless, the larch is definitely a cold weather tree, and highly suitable to the theme.

And some of us who prefer SP.

 

I know adding a Lunging Bash to that staff is definitely riskier than adding a Lunging Thrust, but crushing attacks make so much sense on staffs. I actually would prefer Zap + Lunging Bash over the current combo, since Pushback Parry, cold cards and bashes have beautiful synergy, but that might just be me.

 

Lunging Thrust was the only step move I could find to keep the staff at 2 minor tokens and rare, since it is uncommon (and has a value of 0 for wizards, apparently). Well, Lunging Bite worked as well, but....no. To use any other step/move attack would have brought a major token into play, which is what I did not want.

I almost put Startling Strike and Cold Snap , as I was thinking that Startling Strike might fit with a 'shatter the ice' sort of thought, but I decided I wanted to stay more true to the cold aspect, and that I might have been asking for too much when it came to attacks there.

EDIT: Zap + Lunging Bash makes it epic, not rare. I'd think an epic/legendary staff of the Magus (blessed be her name) would be something better than this. This seems like a staff the Magus (blessed be her name) would take out for a weekend stroll in the mountains, not into a death match.

 

Well, looks like submissions closed before i got my good idea, so I'll post it here:

Karmic Staff aka An Eye for an Eye

Rare Y/B lvl 13 staff

Freeze
Demonic Miasma
Boiling Armor
Dropped Guard
Lava Pool
Meltdown




Pretty amazing for control wizards, especially freeze + lava pool for major/minor, plus armor removal for resistant hides. On the other hand miasma is a problem for the popular dwarf wizards, neither it nor meltdown cycles, and dropped guard can get rid of your toughness/resistant (but that's about it).

I thought about swapping miasma for trip (too terrible) or slowed (don't like it), and boiling for melt armor (why is it only bronze, it checks blocks AND removes armor).

Feedback? Also thanks, Flax, for shoutout on my Mini spaceship on the youtube vid! Keep up the good work Cardhunter!!

 

To be frank I don't like it at all. By the way, the item is actually a level 10 double minor rare according to Vakaz's item creator. Demonic Miasma is a priest drawback by nature and there's no innovating reason that would warrant the sudden transfer. Dropped Guard makes sense here and is quite a good option, while Meltdown is really really bad since it is not a Trait drawback, but a Mandatory Action one. On the other hand you have some high-quality wizard cards to trade for those drawbacks, but the overall dissonance of the cards and how the item seems to be about forcing good cards on the high end at low token prices by adding random drawbacks reduces the appeal of the item, especially in a competitive build. That doesn't mean Flax might like it, though. He seems to like items with a slew of nearly random cards. Besides, the good stuff is usually controversial (e.g. Tasty, Tasty Staff).

 

Demonic Miasma being a magic attack and possessing encumber made it a very interesting card to consider, as i did with my withdrawn Snowglobe entry....
The flavour was that you got a leaky cold container, and something evilish inside is released and starts inflicting the character wearing it.

 

Crap, I didn't win, I guess I'll try again; come what may I can say, "No reason for chagrin!"

 

? Is the winning entry up ?

 

Nope.

 

Flax hates us all personally, remember? He's taking the time to send individual rejection letters. So thoughtful. <3

 

I get the feeling the winner of this month's competition would be really fortunate. After the slew of new items from October and November's contests, having only a single item win would feel much more rewarding for the submitter. Apart from that, there is a very limited number of cards to choose from in a limited number of slots (mainly Staff, Arcane Item, and Robe) for this month, so that means the winner could be selected from similar entries and that would lead to the prospect of almost wins. But then again, it seems more likely that the winning item is unique or thematically stronger than its competition.

 

Unique.

Clearly, I've already won.

 

Hey guys, I just wanted to say cool discussion before I go back to not reading this thread during the AA6 (which hasn't started yet). It was fun reading you guys trying to guess my shortlist. Lots of great entries. I'll have more commentary in my video, which is running a bit late this month.

One comment I have: at some point someone guessed that there's no cold-damage-boosting trait for obsolete balance reasons. Not true. There isn't a cold-damage-boosting trait for the same reason there isn't an unholy-damage-boosting trait or an acid-damage-boosting trait: we haven't exhausted our design space yet.

 

The only way to balance such a skill would be to prevent chars from having that and Talented Healer in the same deck.